"It's nice to have you in Birmingham" used to be a lie we told to make ourselves feel better, but since then the truth has set us free, and now it's a battle cry.

Dear DNC,

I want you to come to Birmingham because Birmingham needs your help with something.

And if you do decide to bring your convention here, I think Birmingham could help you.

A couple of years ago, I was at my favorite Southside watering hole when a British couple walked into the bar. One was from London. The other was from Birmingham, England. Both were very complimentary of our city.

Americans are proud, but that pride often betrays a streak of insecurity. No matter what we say to the contrary, we do care what other people think of us, especially in the South, and especially in Birmingham. A few folks at the bar started to pepper that couple with questions, and someone blurted out, "What's the best thing this country has ever done?"

Maybe they were expecting, "Thank you for saving us from the Germans."

That's not the answer they gave.

AL.com Opinion

About the writer Kyle Whitmire writes political commentary for the Alabama Media Group. His work appears regularly in newspapers in Huntsville, Birmingham and Mobile and is online at AL.com all the time. Reach him at kwhitmire@al.com.

Instead, the couple said something surprising: America's real gift to the world has been the civil rights movement. That movement hasn't ended and it is still making its way around the world, and it started here in the states.

Suddenly the folks in the bar got quiet. I don't believe I had ever seen a whole group of people blush before – not because anyone was embarrassed, but rather, because everyone realized that we had something to be truly proud of.

Montgomery can call itself the birthplace of the civil rights movement, but Birmingham raised that baby. And now that baby is out in the world doing great things.

Birmingham has a right to be proud, but sometimes it takes an outsider to tell us why.

That's one reason I want you to come here.

Another is that Birmingham is still having trouble telling its story, and I know this because it's only when those curious outsiders get here that they are shocked at what they find.

The coverage was nice, but as someone whose been living here a while, my reaction was "Well, duh."

But it's not their problem that they were surprised. It's ours. Birmingham has changed. Birmingham is not just better; it's good on its way to becoming great. Birmingham has a right to be proud. But it needs a great big megaphone to tell the rest of the world that, so when outsiders stumble across the place they won't be surprised anymore.

DNC, I think you've got that megaphone.

And you need to give it to us for another reason: It's important to the rest of the world, and particularly to your party, that y'all hear what else we have to say.

For a long time, the civil rights movement seemed to be something we suffered, or something we wanted to get past. But the thing we've learned is that the sacrifices made here, the struggle this city endured – those things were an investment in our future, and that investment is finally beginning to pay off.

We're not perfect and I hope we never think we are, because when you decide you're done improving, you're done improving. We still have segregation in Birmingham. We have poverty. We have disparity. But go ahead and compare us to any other major city in America on those same things, and I'm willing to bet we're doing better than most. (Atlanta can call itself the city too busy to hate, but ask them why they moved their ballpark to the suburbs when we brought ours back downtown, and see if you get a straight answer.)

You can go to a swing state to hold your convention, but none of those places have what we can give you. Birmingham has a story to tell and a powerful message, and if you're smart, you are going to want to be a part of that.

Decades ago, our Chamber of Commerce tried to woo businesses here with a slogan: "It's nice to have you in Birmingham."

At the time, it was a sham. It was a lie we told to make ourselves feel better.

But since then the truth has set us free, and that slogan has become our rallying cry.

It would be nice to have you in Birmingham, and you should come here because Birmingham is a nice place to be.

But the best reason for you to come here is something Fred Shuttlesworth said to Martin Luther King Jr.

"If you come to Birmingham, you will not only gain prestige, but really shake the country," he said. "If you win in Birmingham, as Birmingham goes, so goes the nation."

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